Attachment of external drainage devices to a patient's body, such as following a surgery, are common place for a variety of surgical procedures in wide-spread use today.
One area in which these external drainage devices are often attached to patients following a surgery is the operations performed on a patient's breast(s) such as those performed in treatment of breast cancer. Most commonly, breast cancer operations include mastectomy which involve removal of the breast, or lumpectomy which involve removal of lumps from the breast, and often include, or are followed by, some form of breast reconstruction surgery. Following these surgeries, the operating physician often inserts a drainage tube near the operated areas of the patient's breast to reduce accumulations of post-operative fluids, such as blood or lymph, during the convalescence period. The tubes are typically not removed until the drainage output falls to below a predetermined volume per day, such as to below 30 ccs (1 fluid oz).
Generally, these external tubes, often made of rubber or plastic, are secured at one end to patient's body only by sutures. The other end of the tube is typically connected to a reservoir or container in which the fluids are received and collected. As such, movements of the tubes can cause tugging or even tearing of the connecting sutures resulting in pain, discomfort or serious injury to the patient. In addition, the container's weight and swing motion often exerts detrimental force on the tubes to further exacerbate the foregoing problems.
To reduce the adverse impacts of the movement or weight of the container on the tubes, patients are often required to restrain the container from movement. One approach is for the patients to hold the container by hand, which reduces the availability of their hands for every day usage. Other approaches include the securing of the container or the tubes to the patient's clothing or hospital gown, such as via a pin. A shortcoming in the foregoing approaches is that the container and large portions of the tubes remain exposed and prone to impact or entanglements with external objects in the patient's path, such as door knobs, handles or other protruding objects, thus still resulting in tugging or tearing of the connecting sutures. In addition, during activities which require both the removal of a patient's garments and the use of patient's hands, such as showering, the patients are often forced to once again resort to holding the container in their hand(s) which they need for showering and safeguarding against slippage, thus often increasing the chances of shower-related injuries to the patient.
Accordingly, there is a need for providing improved mobility and reduced inconveniences to patients with externally attached drainage devices during both day and night recovery period, and bathing activities.